





























„ ^ .*> ,v»». \J>. <V .o». % 


* <£> ^ 


* r A 0^ O 


5fc* . 4? ^ .3 


• • & 

^ \ 

* :£m&h< o* 


* «? 



_/ «r** •, 

* • * • * A < 




^ **•'* J? 


*£♦>. * 

t ** 1 # x. -'«'» » 

^ *»«»“ ^ 

«\ ^«/' .gfr. \ ** v . 

* V V • ' s*V 

«* ^❖ v ‘^ f , IwOT.’ ' 



... 


»!*"<► 'Ov ., 4 '* 

% \/ : 

, r _/ ^VV 

0 * « ® ® * * *0 A * .» K * 9 + 

— v v> 4 <p #Vd535£* % 

- ^cr ^bV ^0 





<>* * P N ® 


* 

vv 


• <*$ vfk 

„ * $p 

» v * -<y v * 


0 . - _. „0 V-'JXSPV *> 

^ «*••- A 1 )' . 

, A - s % *<* a* .vhkv. **. .<> « 

•; ^ V 1 » <3pjE& ’ 1 %•■<? 




« * j 


9 » » 


,“F 



/k° <P r „ C> * 

y//Cs) * < v « 


^ O' . 

: ^ 1 

*P ^ $ °* ** 

* $p" %> ^ °°^ ‘ ^ •' ’ *° 

.Q r 4‘ <> V » ••* £k 

a*^ ^JPMh%* & <h" ►*&.^**- ^ 

•%>»«<> * 




* <y ,& * 





J) 4 * 

;. >„ A* . 

■>-» V 


< c.” ^ 

<V '••*’ ^ tm % '' 

% ^ c° .*J«r % °0 

L * ; ^>o< « '^* 

4* * g ^ ^ * 

%'*•"»■>’* s ^ ,.. %■^*^*’ f° ,., . 


» “,/. <i' • 

: A v^. * 

* tf* 0 



^ * • * e 



**' ”" v v . 

U J ♦ 

: r< v : 

* A&’ J k '. 


t • 



















THE 


JEWISH POPULATION 

OF THE _ 

UNITED STATES 


BY 

SAMSON D. OPPENHEIM, J. D. 

Director of the Bureau of Jewish Statistics and Research 


[Reprint from the American Jewish Year Book 5679] 


» 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA 
1918 














V. 


♦ 






Gift 

Publisher 
m 10 IBIS 


? 


\ 




% 


'S 


y 










' v 

c . 


• / 




V 











t 


« 


% 


> € 
• «l 
\ 


4 

* 

* 

J 



\ 


» 


X 












- 

V %*_' 





v# 


.V 


> ; * ' 


‘ • ) 




1 




» 


THE JEWISH POPULATION OE THE 
UNITED STATES 

BY SAMSON D. OPPENHEIM, J. D. 

DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU OF JEWISH STATISTICS AND RESEARCH 

When the American Jewish Year Book for 5678 went to 
press in August, 1917, the returns for the enumeration of 
Jews in the United States, which the Bureau of Statistics and 
Research of the American Jewish Committee had been engaged 
in making, were by no means complete. As a matter of fact 
the work continued to extend well into the current year. This 
article must consequently be regarded both as a sequel and, in 
some measure, as a revised edition of that portion of the divi¬ 
sion of statistics treating of the number of the Jews of the 
United States, which appeared in the Year Book for 1917-1918. 

All statistics regarding the number of Jews in the United 
States have, of course, been estimates. The earliest approxi¬ 
mation seems to have been made in 1818, by Mordecai M. 
Noah, who put the number at 3,000. Other noteworthy esti¬ 
mates have been the following: 


Year Jewish Population Authority- 

1824. 6,000 . Solomon Etting 

1840. 15,000 American Almanac 

1848. 50,000 M. A. Berk 

1880. 230,000 William B. Hackenburg 

1888. 400,000 Isaac Markens 

1897. 937,800 David Sulzberger 

1905.1,508,435 Jewish Encyclopedia 

1907.1,777,185 Henrietta Szold 

1914.2,933,374 Joseph Jacobs. 


The 1917 inquiry into the number of Jews in this country 
naturally divided itself into two parts: the one covering New 
2 











32 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


York City, and the other concerning the cities and towns out¬ 
side of the metropolis. 

The following are the principal important estimates that 
were made of the Jews of New York City, prior to 1917: 


New York City- 

Year Population Authority 

1790. 385 U. S. Census Bureau (for New 

York State) 

1812. 400 Gershom Mendes Seixas 

1826. 950 S. Gilman (for New York 

State) 

1846. 10,000 Isaac Leeser 

1848.12,000 to 13,000 M. A. Berk 

1880. 60,000 William B. Hackenburg 

1888. 125,000 Isaac Markens 

1891 . 225,250 Charles Frank 

1892 . 250,000 Richard Wheatley- 

1897. 350,000 Jacob H. Schiff 

1905. 672,000 Joseph Jacobs 

1907. 850,000 Henrietta Szold 

1910 . 861,980 U. S. Census Bureau (for Yid¬ 

dish-speaking only) 

1911 . 90£,000 Joseph Jacobs 

1912 . 975,000 Joseph Jacobs 

1912 .1,250,000 Bureau of Education (New 

York Kehillah) 

1913 .1,330,000 Professor Chalmers of Cornell 

University 


Judging by the two foregoing sets of figures, it was to he ex¬ 
pected that the number of Jews in New York City would, four 
years later, be found to amount to something in the neighbor¬ 
hood of one and one-half millions, or almost fifty per cent of 
the total Jewish population of the United States. Hence, in 
view of the fact that half of the subject matter of the entire 
inquiry was concentrated within a few square miles, it was con¬ 
sidered highly desirable to attack, in as intensive a manner as 
possible, the problem of ascertaining the number of Jewish 
inhabitants of the country’s largest city. On account of the 
enormous size of the New York community, individual esti- 



















THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 33 


mates, no matter how expert, could not be safely relied upon. 
Accordingly, arrangements were made, by which the co-opera¬ 
tion of the New York Kehillah, and especially that of Dr. 
Alexander Dushkin, of the Bureau of Education, were secured 
in approaching the problem from a different angle, a new 
method of approximation being invented and tried. 

It is a well-known fact that, whatever differences of belief 
or of religious attitude may exist among Jews, they are almost 
unanimous in observing the High Holidays (New Year, the Day 
of Atonement, and the Passover), practically all Jewish chil¬ 
dren refraining from attending school on these days. So, if the 
attendance in the public schools on these holidays were ascer¬ 
tained and were then compared with the attendance on normal 
days, we should get a fairly accurate estimate of the number of 
Jewish children in the public schools of New York. If we 
could then find the proportion of Jewish children to the total 
Jewish population, we should be furnished with an excellent 
means of determining the Jewish population of the entire city. 

It was possible to obtain from the New York City Board of 
Education reliable data concerning the attendance in the New 
York public schools on the Jewish High Holidays in the years 
1913 and 1914, the information for 1915 and 1916 not being 
used, because in 1915 some of the Jewish holidays occurred 
during the registration week of the public schools, and in the 
early fall of 1916 the epidemic of infantile paralysis was still 
raging. The average school attendance for 1915-1916 was, 
however, used in computing the number of children of school 
age in that'school year, after the general percentage co-efficient 
had been ascertained by the help of the 1913 and 1914 figures. 
When the 1913 and 1914 holiday figures were compared with 
the attendance on normal days during the same years, it was dis- 


34 


AMERICAN JEIWISH YEAR BOOK 


covered that about 40.5^ of the public school children stayed 
away from their studies on the Jewish holidays. Now no doubt 
a modicum of Jewish children attend school on the most 
important holidays, but on the other hand a number of non- 
Jewish children, especially in schools containing a large pro¬ 
portion of Jewish scholars, absent themselves on such days, 
because they know that the school work will have to be reviewed 
for the benefit of the large absentee contingent. The pro¬ 
portion of Jewish public school children in the entire city was 
for the purposes of this discussion, therefore, ultimately 
reduced to, or set at 38^, by boroughs, the percentages being 
fixed as follows: 


Manhattan .48$ 

Bronx.40$ 

Brooklyn .38$ 

Queens . 7$ 

Richmond . 5$ 


A significant check on these estimates is furnished by the 
data obtained in the investigation of the United States Con¬ 
gress Immigration Commission of 1910, whose method of 
inquiry consisted mainly in questioning children of the public 
schools concerning the nationality of their fathers. The per¬ 
centage of New York public school children designating their 
fathers as Hebrews, in 1910, was, as to the city’s five boroughs, 
as follows: 


Manhattan .46.1$ 

Bronx .20.2$ 

Brooklyn .29.9$ 

Queens . 3.5$ 

Richmond .. 2.8$ 


Considering that the figures of the Immigration Commission 
do not include such Jewish children as may have designated 
their fathers as of American, Russian, German, or other origins 












THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 35 


or races, the similarity here exhibited is, as Dr. Dushkin points 
out in his splendid monograph in the Jewish Communal 
Register for 1917-1918, very striking. 

The largest discrepancy between these figures and those of 
the estimate made a few years later is discovered in the case of 
the Bronx, where, it is a matter of common knowledge, there 
has been a very large influx of Jews within the past half-dozen 
years. It was ascertained, then, that there were nearly 280,000 
Jewish children in 1915-1916 in the elementary public schools, 
as appears more particularly set forth below. 

But in order to further corroborate the proportion-figure of 
Jewish children of school age obtained through the study of 
school attendance on Jewish holidays, another method of esti¬ 
mation was resorted to. The Bureau of Attendance of the 
Board of Education keeps a continuous school census of the 
population of Hew York. Some million and a half cards are 
filed in the census division of the Bureau, each of which repre¬ 
sents a complete family, parents as well as children, these cards 
covering all schools, both public and private. From these cards 
over 4200 families were selected, practically at random, repre¬ 
senting a total of 10,332 children of school age, i. e., at intervals 
of about 350 cards, two cards were selected, the first cards of 
each pair forming Set I, and the second cards forming Set II. 

The names were judged by experts (Dr. Alexander Dush¬ 
kin and Mr. Meir Isaacs) as to whether they were Jewish or 
non-Jewish, the examiners being greatly aided in their decisions 
by the details noted upon the cards, which included the first 
names of the father and mother and of all the children, the 
nativity of the parents and of the children, the length of their 
stay in America, the year of their immigration, the country of 
their emigration, and the occupation of the father. It will be 


36 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


readily seen that these data furnished good clues for determin¬ 
ing as to whether a family is Jewish or not. Even when German 
names, such as Bamberger, or Anglicized names, such as Brown, 
were encountered, the data on the cards, while not as helpful as 
in less puzzling cases, proved quite significant. Thus, if a 
child attended a Catholic parochial school, it would certainly be 
safe to assume that the family was non-Jewish. Or if in an im¬ 
migrant family living on Canal Street the son’s first name was 
the same as his father’s, it would be reasonable to. assume the 
family to be non-Jewish, because it is not customary among 
East-European Jews to name any of their children after a living 
father. 

The data furnished by the cards themselves were so help¬ 
ful in deciding the judgments in question, that only 196, 
or 4.6$ of the names considered, were included in the question¬ 
able category; while to guard against the temptation to call 
doubtful items Jewish, all cases about which there was any 
uncertainty were unhesitatingly counted as non-Jewish. For 
greater accuracy, the judgments were made in two sets, and the 
average was used in computing the proportion of J ewish school 
children. 

About thirty-three per cent of all the children of school age, 
in the public, parochial, and private schools of New York City 
were by this “ card ” system adjudged to be Jews. The results 
thus arrived at are in close agreement with those obtained by 
the public school attendance method above described. Since 
the thirty-three per cent represent not only the public school 
children, but also the children in private and parochial schools, 
there were added to the 730,755, in the elementary public school 
register of New York City for 1915-1916, the 200,000 children 
attending, according to the estimate of the Statistical Division 


THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 37 

of the New York State Department of Education, the ele¬ 
mentary parochial and private schools of the city. This made 
a total of 930,755 children, in 1915, between the ages of five and 
fourteen, of whom 307,149 would appear to have been Jewish. 
931,000 children would mean a total population for New York 
City of 5,172,000, and that is just about what that city’s popu¬ 
lation was in 1915. 

By the holiday school attendance method it was computed 
that in 1915-1916, there were 277,687 Jewish children in the 
elementary public schools of New York City. To this number 
should be added at least the aggregate of the 20,000 Jewish 
children in private schools, making a total of 297,687 New 
York City Jewish children of elementary school age. The 
difference between the two approximating methods used is seen 
to be only about 9450, or a variation of three per cent. The 
agreement between the two computations is very striking, con¬ 
sidering the fact that actually not all of the Jewish children 
between the ages of five and fourteen can have been at school in 
the early fall of the year, some obtaining their working cer¬ 
tificates at the age of thirteen, and others being temporarily 
absent. In accordance with these calculations, the number of 
Jewish children of elementary school age, (i. e., five to fourteen 
years) in this city, in 1917, was found to be 300,000, or very 
close to that number, if anything a little greater. 

We must now proceed to investigate what bearing these 
results have upon the total population. According to the 
United States Census of 1910, the proportion of children 
between the ages of five and fourteen to the total population 
is approximately eighteen per cent, i. e., for every eighteen 
school children the existence of eighty-two other pe'rsons may 
be assumed, or one hundred individuals in all; or where there 


38 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


are one thousand children of school age, there are 5555 indi¬ 
viduals altogether. But it is difficult to say off-hand whether 
the proportion of children to adults among the Jews is lower 
or higher than it is in the case of the general population. 
From a study of over four thousand families selected at ran¬ 
dom from the census cards of the Bureau of Attendance of the 
Board of Education, referred to above, it was found that the 
average Jewish family has 2.5. children at school, whereas 
the average non-Jewish family has 2.35 children at school. 
This would imply a difference of fifteen children per hundred 
families. Assuming five to six individuals per family, this 
would mean a difference of 2.5$ to 3$ in the proportion of 
children as between Jews and non-Jews. On the other hand, 
the fact that New York’s Jewish community is so largely com¬ 
posed of immigrants would tend to make the proportion of 
Jewish children lower than that of the children of the general 
population. In the United States Census of 1910, Population, 
Vol. 3, the proportion of children between five and fourteen 
years in the native population is given as twenty-six per cent, 
whereas among the foreign-bom whites it runs as low as seven 
per cent. But as the Jewish immigration is largely a “ family 
immigration,” the proportion of children among Jewish immi¬ 
grants is probably twice as great as among other immigrants. 
Thus Samuel Joseph, in Jewish Immigration to the United 
States, shows that, whereas the age group “ under 14 ” (which 
includes also children below five) is 12.3$ for all European 
immigrants, it is twice as large, 24.8$, among Jewish immi¬ 
grants. One would therefore not be far wrong in assuming 
that the proportion of school children among Jews is little, if 
anything, above eighteen per cent. It is certainly not greater 
than twenty per cent. Allowing that every twenty Jewish 


THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 39 


children represent only one hundred individuals, or that every 
thousand such children represent only five thousand Jews 
instead of five thousand five hundred and fifty-five, then, upon 
the basis of its 300,000 Jewish children of elementary school 
age, we should have in New York City a Jewish population of 
1,500,000, or over 45 per cent of the total Jewish population 
of the country, and in New York State approximately a half 
of the Jewish population of America. Or if we include, 
with New York City, Newark, Passaic, Paterson, Jersey City, 
Hoboken, New Rochelle, Mt. Vernon, Elizabeth, Bayonne, and 
one or two other near-by towns, as all within the New York 
metropolitan district, then there will be found within that dis¬ 
trict, equivalent in size about to an area of thirty miles square, 
fully one-half of all the Jews living in the United States. The 
second largest Jewish community in the world, before the out¬ 
break of the war, it may be mentioned in passing, existed in 
Warsaw, which, in 1914, housed between 300,000 and 330,000 
Jews. 

As to the boroughs of New York, their Jewish quotas would 
seem to be as follows: 


Manhattan .695,000 

The Bronx.210,000 

Brooklyn .567,000 

Queens . 23,000 

Richmond . 5,000 


To revert to the question of the Jewish population of New 
York City. The number of public school children in this city 
was in the autumn of 1917 almost exactly 750,000. Even if 
we assume that the proportion of Jewish public school chil¬ 
dren was then only 35$ instead of 38$ of all the public 
school attendants, we should have, as the Jewish public school 
population, 262,500, which, with the 20,000 private school 







40 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


Jewish, pupils, would give for Greater New York 282,500 Jew¬ 
ish school children, or over 280,000 Jewish persons between 
the ages of five and fourteen years. Let us now take for 
granted, what is not at all true, that one such Jewish person 
out of five, instead of 5.5, is a school child, between the ages 
of 5 and 14 years, and we have, as the Jewish population of 
New York City, in September, 1917, 1,412,500 souls, or by 
January 1, 1918, 1,422,000, a too conservative maximum 
it would seem, in view of the facts as they have been actually 
ascertained and of the drastic reductions that have been 
assumed. For the New York City population was estimated 
by the Bureau of Education of the New York Community to 
be, six years ago, 1,250,000; and while this is considerably 
greater than was Dr. Joseph Jacobs’ enumeration of 1912, the 
Kehillah’s figures are upheld by Professor Chalmer’s calcula¬ 
tions made in 1913, even though these may have been a little 
too liberal. Certainly it would he fair to presume that the cor¬ 
rect number of New York City Jews was, in 1912, very close 
to 1,200,000. This approximation is supported by data to be 
found in the 1910 United States Census reports. In that 
census the number of persons speaking Yiddish together with 
their progeny, in New York City, was given as nearly 862,000, 
to be exact, 861,980. But there must have been more than this 
number of Jews in the city at that time, as will be seen from 
the following: 

In 1880, before the last great immigrational influx began, 
there were sixty thousand Jews in New York City, not includ¬ 
ing Brooklyn, which at that time had at least twenty-five 
thousand. By 1910, all these with their descendants would 
have amounted, through natural increase (births over deaths) 
to about 150,000; and it is safe to say that in that year a very 


THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 41 


small part of this group would have given Yiddish as their 
mother tongue, considering how many English, “ Portu¬ 
guese,” and “ Bavarian” Jews there were among the original 
eighty-live thousand cited above, not to mention that among 
the immigrants arriving between 1881 and 1910 there were 
undoubtedly quotas from Germany, Prance, England, and 
Turkey, who also would not have given Yiddish as their 
mother-tongue. We may, therefore, confidently add at least 
one hundred and thirty-five thousand to the 862,000 in ques¬ 
tion, thus bringing the Jewish population of New York City in 
1910 up to 997,000, so that Dr. Jacobs 7 1912 estimate would 
seem to have been too modest, especially in view of the immi¬ 
gration figures for the years 1910-1912. These show that 
between July 1, 1910, and December 31, 1912, 220,000 Jewish 
immigrants entered the United States, 128,000 intending to 
go to New York, of whom it is safe to say that 110,000 came 
to, and remained in, or soon returned to, New York City. If 
we add this 110,000 to the 997,000 referred to above, and 
allow only 43,000 for natural increases during the two years in 
question, we arrive at an aggregate of nearly 1,150,000 as the 
Jewish population of New York City in 1912. 

Support is provided for the assumption of a slightly larger 
total, however, by the following: The Jewish population of 
the state of New York was, in 1907, estimated as 905,000. 
Probably this figure was too low, but let us assume that it was 
not. By 1910, if there had been no immigration at all, the 
state’s Jewish population would have, by natural increase, 
amounted to 960,000. But it could have gained not less than 
120,000 through immigration during those three years, since 
the total Jewish immigration into the country during the same 
period was only a trifle under 250,000. (See Annual Reports 


42 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


of Commissioner General of Immigration, 1908, 1909, and 
1910). Hence the Jewish population of Hew York State, in 
1910, must have been at least 1,080,000. It was probably 
more. Yet, based on the number of persons who reported their 
mother-tongue as Yiddish, it is given in the 1910 Mother- 
Tongue Census as 912,692, which would indicate that only 
eighty-five per cent of the Hew York Jews reported their 
mother-tongue as being Yiddish. Assuming likewise that 
fifteen per cent of the Hew York City Jews failed to so report 
their mother-tongue, then the 862,000 Jews of this city, who, 
according to the 1910 census figures, did so report, can have 
constituted only about eighty-five per cent of all the Jews in 
Hew York City; and so, in 1910, the total Hew York City 
Jewish population would have been at least a million, especially 
since the city had, back in 1907, already over 800,000 Jews. 
(See table above.) Support is lent to this conclusion by the 
survey made in 1911 by Dr. Joseph Brill for the Hew York 
City Board of Health, his estimate being then 1,100,000. 

Taking the city’s Jewish increase during the next two 
years as being at the rate of 80,000 per annum, we should 
have, as the Jewish population of the city in 1912, 1,160,000. 
In all these calculations no allowance has been made for what 
we may call domestic immigration, that is to say, persons com¬ 
ing from other parts of the country into the metropolis. There 
is no doubt that the aggregate of these, drawn as they would be, 
on account of the commercial and industrial opportunities 
afforded, to this immense financial, manufacturing, and 
shippping focus, cannot have been negligible. Surely their 
numbers can hardly have amounted to less than ten thousand 
in two years. Certainly five thousand in that time would be 
a reasonable expectation. Thus we get a total of 1,165,000. 


THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 43 

Dr. Jacobs himself confirms the opinion that he was too con¬ 
servative in 1912, for later, in the American Jewish Year Book 
5675, he calculates that by January 1, 1915, there should be 
3,000,000 Jews in the country, in which prophecy he was fully 
justified by the event. And as Yew York City was even then 
rapidly approaching the point when it should come to contain 
nearly half of the Jewish population of the country, it must 
at the beginning of 1915 have contained very close to 1,300,000 
J ews. 

Starting then with a Yew York City Jewish contingent of 
1,165,000, in 1912, let us once more glance at the immigration 
figures. Jewish immigrants into the United States aggregated, 
for 1913 and 1914, 239,381, of this number 137,604 giving 
Yew York State as their destination. It is safe to say that a 
preponderating proportion of these came to, and remained in, 
or speedily returned to. Yew York City. Thus that muni¬ 
cipality may well be considered to have gained in population, 
through immigration, about 130,000 Jews, during the two 
years ending July 30, 1914. Certainly 120,000 would be for 
these two years a judicious estimate ; since Yew York City’s 
population had been just prior to 1912 forging ahead at the 
rate of about 80,000 additional Jewish inhabitants annually, 
of whom 20,000, on an average each year, were attributable to 
excess of births over deaths, and the balance to influxes, mainly 
immigrational, from without. Hence by July, 1914, the Jew¬ 
ish population of the city can hardly have been less than 
1,335,000. Since that time, there has been a total Jewish 
immigration into the United States of approximately 60,000, 
of whom 31,000 gave Yew York State as their destination, 
probably at least 25,000 remaining in Yew York City. 


44 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


Totalling now, we shall have something like the following 
for the Jewish population of New York City on January 1, 
1918: 


Population in 1912.1,165,000 

Foreign immigration 1912-1918. 145,000 

Domestic immigration 1912-1918. 25,000 

Natural increases. 150,000 


Total .1,485,000 


In all of these considerations it has been assumed that the 
general Jewish increase rate in this country has been no more 
than two per cent per annum; but as a matter of fact there 
is a strong probability that it has been somewhat greater, 
especially in New York City. In the first place it is well 
known that the death rate of a given Jewish community is 
always lower than the general local death rate. This is prob¬ 
ably accounted for by the lower infant mortality rate found 
among Jews and by their greater tendency toward longevity. 
Now the death rate of New York City has averaged during the 
last ten years in the neighborhood of fifteen per thousand, while 
the Jewish death rate, according to information furnished by 
the actuaries of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., would 
seem to be about eleven per thousand. Again, speaking in 
general terms, the Jews in the large American cities have 
shared fully in the great prosperity which the country has 
enjoyed during the past decade. It is also a well-known fact 
that there is a strong tendency among Jews to translate in¬ 
creasing prosperity into matrimonial terms. Hence it is very 
probable that the increase rate among Jews has been for a 
number of years greater than the traditional two per cent, and 
during the last half-dozen years, at least, probably nearer two 
and one-half per cent than two per cent in New York City. 








THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 45 


On the other hand, there is nothing to show that the birth rate 
among Jews in onr cities is markedly less than it is among 
their non-Jewish neighbors. 

If we are to hold that they have more than the average 
number of children at school, that fact would tend to support 
the foregoing contentions, and the apparent discrepancy be¬ 
tween the very large number of Jewish children, on the one 
hand, which would make it appear that there were more than 
1,500,000 Jews in New York City, and the diminished figure 
arrived at by the strict application of the two per cent rule of 
increase, and the twenty per cent assumption concerning 
school attendance among" Jews, which would make it seem that 
there were less than 1,500,000 in this city, on the other hand, 
would tend to vanish. 

To conclude with New York City, which contains the largest 
Jewish community that has ever existed within the confines 
of a single municipality: It has over 2200 congregations and 
one hundred and eighty-one religious schools with 41,403 
pupils, exclusive of about 14,000 who attend private hedarim. 
It has over a hundred recreational and cultural agencies, more 
than one thousand mutual aid societies, nine hundred and 
sixty-five - lodges, one hundred and ninety-three economic 
agencies, and one hundred and sixty-four philanthropic and 
correctional agencies. 

Over $17,000,000 was expended in 1917 by all these activi¬ 
ties., of which amount the two great philanthropic federa¬ 
tions, that of Manhattan and the Bronx and that of Brooklyn, 
expended during the past year $2,500,000. In these figures 
are not included the $6,000,000 raised in the year 1917-1918 for 
Jewish War Relief abroad. Within the confines of the metrop- 


46 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


olis are printed and published fifty-seven Jewish journals: five 
dailies; twenty-eight weeklies; eleven monthlies; one bi¬ 
monthly; one quarterly; one annual; ten occasional publica¬ 
tions. Of these twenty-three are published in English, three in 
Hebrew, two in Judeo-Spanish, and twenty-nine in Yiddish. 

The following table, which is taken from the Hew York 
Jewish Communal Register, published by the Hew York 
“ Kehillah,” in 1918, affords details of the foregoing summary: 


Table Giving Estimate of Money Expended for Jewish Purposes 
by Jewish Communal Agencies in New York City 


AGENCIES SUB-TOTALS 

Religious Agencies: 

Permanent Congregations.$2,700,000 

Temporary Congregations . 250,000 

Kashruth . 3,000,000 

Burial Societies. 50,000 


TOTALS 


-$6,000,000 

Religious Educational Agencies: 

Week-day Religious Schools,. 740,000 

Sunday Schools. 50,000 

Parochial Schools. 70,000 

Hedarim and Private Instruction. 500,000 


Cultural and Recreational Agencies: 

Young Men’s Hebrew and Kindred Ass’ns.. 435,000 

Yiddish Press .. 2,000,000 


Economic Agencies: 

Immigrant Aid Societies. 

Employment Bureaus (not in Institutions). 

Technical Schools. 

Clara de Hirsch Home. 

Loan Societies . 

Mutual Aid Societies. 

Lodges . 


2,435,000 1 


250,000 

15,000 

195,000 

42,000 

60,000 

1,000,000 

1,900,000 

- 3,462,000 


1 This does not include the amount of money spent on the 
Jewish theatre and in Jewish social clubs, both of which are of a 
distinctly Jewish recreational and cultural character. 























THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 47 


Philanthropic Agencies: 

Relief Societies . 725,000 

Day Nurseries.«.. 50,000 

Child Caring Agencies . 975,000 

Hospitals and Convalescent Homes. 2,090,000 

Old Age Homes. 150,000 

Institutions for Defectives. 150,000 

- 4,140,000 

Correctional Agencies . 160,000 

Co-ordinating and Research Agencies. 100,000 


The great majority of American Jews live in cities or towns, 
there being only about 20,000 Jewish farmers and other agri¬ 
culturists in the United States ; and even most of these twenty 
thousand reside in little centers. Accordingly, to find the sum 
of the Jewish communities in all urban places would be to find 
practically the Jewish population of the nation. It was unfor¬ 
tunately not feasible to make a survey of the Jewish public 
school population in any of the major cities outside of New 
York. Therefore another method was adopted to ascertain, in 
the case of each town or city, how many Jews it contained. The 
Bureau of Jewish Statistics and Research has a list of nearly 
four thousand congregations, rabbis, etc. To every rabbi or 
other head of a congregation (in some cases to lay officials), 
was sent a questionnaire, asking the recipient to give, among 
other things, a careful and conservative estimate of the number 
of Jews in the city in which he resided. 

The thousands of resulting returns were carefully compared 
with one another, as well as with other data obtained through 
the reports of various charitable organizations in each city, 
and additional information furnished by Young Men’s Hebrew 
Associations, the Industrial Removal Office, and certain 
analogous organizations; and thus, finally, what is believed to 
have been a fairly accurate estimate in the case of each city 











48 


AMERICAN JEIWISH YEAR BOOK 


having a general population of more than twenty thousand was 
arrived at, the more conservative averages being generally given 
the preference in all computations, deductions, etc. Whenever 
an estimate seemed unduly large, further inquiries were made, 
and statements from new correspondents were asked, the 
estimate conforming most nearly to the total called for by the 
“ rule 99 mentioned below being preferred. 

As to towns with a general population of at least one 
thousand and less than twenty thousand, it was not invariably 
possible to get a reliable estimate of their Jewish contingents. 
Sometimes, indeed, no response at all was received to the 
repeated inquires sent out. But so many replies were obtained 
from the numerous smaller places, as well as from practically 
all cities of larger size, that it became after a while possible to 
formulate a sort of law or rule governing the percentages of 
Jews in localities of various proportions. Indeed it was 
eventually found practicable in the case of smaller places, from 
which no adequate reply was to be procured, to estimate very 
closely their Jewish population by the aid of the “ rule 99 in 
question. Quite frequently, after an estimate had been made, 
a return would come in from some little town, and in hardly 
any instance did the detailed report vary materially in its 
total of the Jews of that town from the estimate that had 
been made. 

To explain more particularly, it appears that between 
twenty-five per cent and twenty-seven per cent of the popula¬ 
tion of New York City are Jews, this city being with regard 
to its Jewish community unique. Next, in the group compris¬ 
ing Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, St. Louis, Pitts¬ 
burgh, Baltimore, Newark, and Detroit, nine large manufac¬ 
turing centers, on an average a trifle under ten per cent of the 
population are Jews, as will be seen from the following: 


THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 49 


TABLE A 1 

Showing 9 Cities Containing an Aggregate of Over 9,200,000 
Inhabitants of Whom Nearly 900,000 Are Jews 

General Population 
(Estimated as of 


City Dec. 31, 1917) Jewish Population 

Chicago. 2,572,000 225,000 

Philadelphia .1,785,000 200,000 

Cleveland . 782,000 100,000 

Boston. 765,000 . 77,500 

Baltimore . 607,000 60,000 

St. Louis. 867,000 60,000 

Pittsburgh . 601,000 60,000 

Newark . 409,000 55,000 

Detroit . 841,500 50,000 


Total .9,229,500 887,500 


In the remaining sixty-two American Cities of the first 
order, namely snch as have a general population of at least 
100,000, the percentage of Jewish residents averages a little 
under 4.5$, as will be seen by the following: 

TABLE B 

Showing Sixty-One Cities of the United States, Each Having 
a Population, in 1917, of 100,000 or More, and a Total 
Population of 12,640,000, with Jewish 



Population 

of Each 



Jewish 


Jewish 

City 

Population 

City 

Population. 

Birmingham, Ala. . 

.... 3,500 

Kansas City, Kan. . . 

. . . 3,500 

Los Angeles, Cal. .. 

.... 18,000 

Louisville, Ky. 

.. . 9,000 

Oakland, Cal. 

.... 5,000 

New Orleans, La. ... 

... 8,000 

San Francisco, Cal 

. ... 30,000 

Cambridge, Mass. .. 

... 8,000 

Denver, Colo. 

.... 11,000 

Fall River, Mass. ... 

... 7,500 

Bridgeport, Conn. . 

.... 12,000 

Lawrence, Mass. ... 

. . . 2,000 

Hartford, Conn. - 

.... 16,000 

Lowell, Mass. 

. . . 6,000 

New Haven, Conn. 

. ... 18,000 

New Bedford, Mass. 

. .. 3,500 

Waterbury, Conn. . 

.... 6,000 

Springfield, Mass. .. 

. .. 6,000 

Wilmington, Del. . , 

.... 3,500 

Worcester, Mass. ... 

... 10,000 

Washington, D. C. 

.... 10,000 

Grand Rapids, Mich. 

. .. 1,000 

Atlanta Ga. ... 

. .. . 10,000 

Duluth, Minn. 

.. . 2,300 

Indianapolis, Ind. . 

.... 10,000 

Minneapolis, Minn. . 

... 15,000 

Des Moines, la. - 

.... 3,200 

St. Paul, Minn. 

... 10,000 


1 In this and all other tables the Jewish population given is that 
of 1917. 



































50 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


TABLE B (continued) 


Jewish 


City Population 

Kansas City, Mo.12,000 

Butte, Mont. 1,000 

Omaha, Neb. 10,000 

Camden, N. J. 2,000 

Jersey City, N. J.12,500 

Paterson, N. J.15,000 

Trenton, N. J. 7,000 

Albany, N. Y. 7,000 

Buffalo, N. Y. 20,000 

Rochester, N. Y. 20,000 

Syracuse, N. Y.12,000 

Akron, 0. 2,000 

Cincinnati, 0. 25,000 

Columbus, 0. 9,000 

Dayton, 0. 4,000 

Toledo, 0. 7,500 

Youngstown, 0. 5,000 

Portland, Ore. 8,000 


City 

Jewish 

Population 

Reading, Pa. 

. 1,750 

Scranton, Pa. ... 

. 7,500 

Providence, R. I. 

. 15,000 

Memphis, Tenn. 

. 7,000 

Nashville, Tenn. 

. 3,000 

Dallas, Tex. 

. 8,000 

Fort Worth, Tex. 

. 2,250 

Houston, Tex. ... 

. 5,000 

San Antonio, Tex. 

. 3,000 

Salt Lake City, Utah... 2,500 

Richmond, Va. .. 

. 4,000 

Seattle, Wash. .. 

. 5,000 

Spokane, Wash. . 

. 1,100 

Tacoma, Wash. . 

. 900 

Milwaukee, Wis. 

. 20,000 

Total . 

.513,000 


or about 4.1# 


As to cities of the second class, namely, those having a 
general population of between 50,000 and 100,000, their per¬ 
centage of J ews averages about three per cent. Generally speak¬ 
ing, with regard to both classes mentioned above, it may here 
be noted that the proportion of Jewish residents is greater than 
the mean in the East, and less than the average in the West. 
The tables given below are peculiarly instructive as exhibiting 
how the percentage of Jewish residents tends to become 
gradually lower as the total number of citizens decreases. 

TABLE C 

Showing Jewish Population of the Cities of the United States 
Having in 1917 a Population of 50,000, or More, and Less 
Than 100,000 


(a) Cities Having a General Population of 90,000-100,000 each, 
and a Combined Population of 1,035,100, With Jewish 
Population of Each City 


• Jewish 

City Population: 

San Diego, Cal. 600 

Jacksonville, Fla.2,000 

Savannah, Ga.5,000 


Jewish 

City Population 

Evansville, Ind.1,500 

Lynn, Mass.7,500 

Somerville, Mass.2,000 





































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 51 



TABLE C 

(continued) 



Jewish 


Jewish 

City 

Population 

City 

Population 

Schenectady, N. Y. 

. 3,500 

Norfolk, Va. 

. 5,000 

Yonkers, N. Y. ... 

. 5,000 



Oklahoma City, Okla.... 1,000 

Total . 

.34,600 

Erie, Pa. 


t 

or 3.3# 

(b) Cities Having 

a General 

Population of 80,000-90,000 Each, 

and a Combined Population of 591,570, With Jewish 


Population of Each City 



Jewish 


Jewish 

City 

Population 

City 

Population 

Fort Wayne, Ind. . 

. 1,650 

Utica, N. Y. 

. 1,600 

St. Joseph, Mo. 

. 3,300 

Harrisburg, Pa. .. 

. 4,000 

Manchester, N. H. 

. 600 



Elizabeth, N. J. .. 

. 5,000 

Total .,.. 

.19,150 

Troy, N. Y. 



or 3.2# 

(c) Cities Having 

a General Population of 70,000-80,000 Each, 

and a Combined Population of 884,590, With Jewish 


Population of Each City 



Jewish 


Jewish 

City 

Population 

City 

Population. 

Sacramento, Cal. . 

. 900 

Bayonne, N. J. 

. 10,000 

Tampa, Fla. 

. 1,000 

Hoboken, N. J. 

. 5,000 

East St. Louis, Ill. 

. 1,000 

Canton, Ohio. 

. 1,000 

Peoria, Ill. 

. 1.750 

Johnstown, Pa. ... 

. 400 

South Bend, Ind. . 

. 2,000 

Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 

. 3,000 

Terre Haute, Ind. 

. 500 



Wichita, Kan. 

. 300 

Total . 

.26,850 




or 3.0# 

(d) Cities Having 

a General : 

Population of 60,000-70,000 Each, 

and a Combined Population of 1,149,060, With Jewish 


Population 

of Each City 



Jewish 


Jewish 

City 

Population 

City 

Population 

Mobile, Ala. 

. 2,200 

Saginaw, Mich. ... 

. 1,000 

Little Rock, Ark. .. 

. 1,500 

Passaic, N. J. 


Pueblo, Colo. 

. 1,000 

Springfield, O. 

. 400 

Rockford,- Ill. 

. 900 

Allentown, Pa. 

. 1,200 

Springfield, Ill. . .. 

. 700 

Altoona, Pa. 

. 1,000 

Sioux City, la. 

. 2,500 

Charleston, S. C. 

. 1,900 

Covington, Ky. 

. 350 

Chattanooga, Tenn. 

. 1,400 

Portland, Me. 

. 2,500 

El Paso, Tex. 

. 1,800 

Brockton, Mass. ... 

. 1,500 



Holyoke, Mass. ... 

. 1,000 

Total . 

.28,850 




or 2.5# 


















































52 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


TABLE C (continued) 

(e) Cities Having a General Population of 50,000-60,000 Each, 
and a Combined Population of 1,022,145, With Jewish 
Population of Each City 

Jewish Jewish 


City 

Population 

City 

Population 

Montgomery, Ala. .. 

. 1,650 

Lincoln, Neb.. 

. 1,200 

Berkeley, Cai. 

. 3*00 

Atlantic City, N. J.., 

. 4.000 

New Britain, Conn. . 

.... 2,500 

Binghamton, N. Y. 

. 1,500 

Augusta, Ga. 

. 2,500 

Lancaster, Pa.. 

. 1,400 

Macon, Ga. 

. 550 

York, Pa. 

. 700 

Davenport, la. 

. 600 

Pawtucket, R. I. 

. 500 

Topeka, Kan. 

. 1,000 

Galveston, Tex. 

. 1,100 

Haverhill, Mass. ... 

. 3,500 

Superior, Wis. 

. 800 

Bay City, Mich. 

Lansing, Mich. 

. 1,000 

...... 450 

Total . 

.25,415 

Springfield, Mo. . .. 

. 165 


or 2.4$ 


As to towns of the next degree, namely, those having a 
general population of between 20,000 and 50,000, the Jewish 
population in such places averages a trifle over two per cent 
of the total population, as indicated in Table D, while in still 
smaller localities it falls to a little over one per cent, and in 
places with less than one thousand inhabitants to J--J of one 
per cent. 

TABLE D 

Showing Jewish Population of One Hundred and Fifty-Seven 
Cities, Each Having a General Population of Between 20,000 
and 50,000, With Jewish Population of EAch City 


Jewish Jewish 


City 

Population 

City 

Population 

Fort Smith, Ark. 

. .. 300 

Stamford, Conn. ... 

. 1,500 

Alameda, Cal. 

.. . 200 

Key West, Fla. 

. 200 

Fresno, Cal. 

.. . 400 

Pensacola, Fla. 

. 1,000 

Pasadena, Cal. 

... 350 

Columbus, Ga. . 

300 

San Jose, Cal. 

. . . 200 

Aurora, Ill. 

. 300 

Stockton, Cal. 

... 1,000 

Belleville, Ill. 

. 150 

Colorado Springs, Colo 

. .. 660 

Bloomington, Ill. . . 

. 275 

Danbury, Conn. 

... 300 

Danville, 111. 

625 

Meriden, Conn. 

. .. 1,000 

Decatur, Ill. 


New London, Conn. . 

... 1,000 

Elgin, Ill. 

. 500 

Norwalk, Conn. 

.. . 550 

Evanston, Ill. 

. 250 

Norwich, Conn. 

.. . 1,500 

Galesburg, Ill. 

. 220 











































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 53 


TABLE D 
Jewish 


City 

Population, 

Joliet, Ill. 

.... 1,100 

Moline, Ill. 


Quincy, Ill. 


Rock Island, Ill. 

.... 412 

Anderson, Ind. 

. .. . 150 

Hammond, Ind. 

.... 600 

Lafayette, Ind. 

.. . . 300 

Muncie, Ind. 

.. .. 200 

New Albany, Ind. .. 

.. . . 125 

Richmond, Ind. 

. .. . 155 

Burlington, la. 

.... 225 

Cedar Rapids, la. ... 

.... 700 

Clinton, la. 

65 

Council Bluffs, la. ... 

.... 1,000 

Dubuque, la. 

.. .. 450 

Ottumwa, la. 

. . . . 412 

Waterloo, la. 

.. .. 325 

Leavenworth, Kan. .. 

.... 600 

Lexington, Ky.. 

. . . . 385 

Newport, Ky. 

... . 300 

Paducah, Ky. 

.. .. 250 

Shreveport, La. 

.... 1,500 

Bangor, Me. 

.... 1,000 

Lewiston, Me. 

.... 275 

Cumberland, Md. ... 

... . 600 

Brookline, Mass. 

.... 200 

Chelsea, Mass. 

. . . .13,000 

Chicopee, Mass. 

... . 250 

Everett, Mass. 

. . . . 334 

Fitchburg, Mass. 

... . 528 

Gloucester, Mass. .. 

... . 243 

Malden, Mass. 

. ... 9,000 

Medford, Mass. 

. . . . 250 

Newton, Mass. 

. . . . 400 

North Adams, Mass. 

. . . . 500 

Northampton, Mass. 

. ... 400 

Pittsfield, Mass. 

.... 1,500 

Quincy, Mass. 

.... 1,250 

Salem, Mass. 

.... 1,500 

Taunton, Mass. 

.... 750 

Waltham, Mass. 

... . 300 

Battle Creek, Mich. . 

.. .. 244 

Calumet, Mich. 

. .. . 110 

Flint, Mich. 

.... 385 

Jackson, Mich. 

.... 300 


(continued) 

Jewish 

City Population 

Kalamazoo, Mich. .. 900 

Muskegon, Mich. 300 

Jackson, Miss. 126 

Meridian, Miss. 400 

Vicksburg, Miss. 532 

Joplin, Mo.. 250 

Butte, Mont. 1,000 

South Omaha, Neb. 262 

Concord, N. H. 158 

Nashua, N. H . 350 

East Orange, N. J. 300 

Montclair, N. J. 75 

New Brunswick, N. J.. .. 3,000 

Orange, N. J. 210 

Perth Amboy, N. J. 5,000 

Plainfield, N. J. 1,500 

Union, N. J. 400 

West Hoboken, N. J. 350 

Amsterdam, N. Y. 300 

Auburn, N. Y. 250 

Cohoes, N. Y_*. 200 

Elmira, N. Y. 1,200 

Gloversville, N. Y. 600 

Jamestown, N. Y. 125 

Kingston, N. Y. 800 

Mt. Vernon, N. Y.3,000 

New Rochelle, N. Y.3,000 

Newburgh, N. Y. 400 

Niagara Falls, N. Y. 300 

Oswego, N. Y. 300 

Poughkeepsie, N. Y.1,600 

Rome, N. Y. 250 

Watertown, N. Y. 230 

Charlotte, N. C. 350 

Wilmington, N. C. 400 

Winston Salem, N. C. 116 

East Liverpool, Ohio .... 300 

Hamilton, Ohio . 260 

Lima, Ohio . 300 

Lorain, Ohio . 300 

Mansfield, Ohio. 50 

Newark, Ohio . 100 

Portsmouth, Ohio. 128 

Sandusky, Ohio . 143 

Steubenville, Ohio. 400 













































































54 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 



TABLE D 

(continued) 



Jewish 


Jewish 

City 

Population 

City 

Population 

Zanesville, Ohio . 

. 250 

Beaumont, Tex. 

... . 400 

Muskogee, Okla. . 

. 225 

Waco, Tex. 

. . . . 1,500 

Butler, Pa. 

. 150 

Ogden, Utah . 

.... 125 

Chester, Pa. 

. 1,000 

Burlington, Vt. 

.... 850 

Easton, Pa. 

. 800 

Lynchburg, Ya. 

... . 300 

Hazleton, Pa. 

. 950 

Newport News, Va. .. 

. ... 2,000 

McKeesport, Pa. . 

. 3,000 

Petersburg, Va. 

... . 400 

New Castle, Pa. . 

. 610 

Portsmouth, Va. 

.... 1,000 

Norristown, Pa. 

. 220 

Roanoke, Va. 

.... 300 

Pottsville, Pa. ... 

. 400 

Bellingham, Wash. . 

. . . . 250 

Shamokin, Pa. ... 

. 235 

Everett, Wash. 

. . . . 150 

Shenandoah, Pa. . 

. 550 

Huntington, W. Va. 

. . . . 310 

South Bethlehem, 

Pa. ... 1,300 

Charleston, W. Va. . 

.... 1,000 

Williamsport, Pa. 

. 350 

Wheeling, W. Va. ... 

.... 1,000 

Central Falls, R. I, 

. 250 

Green Bay, Wis. 

. . .. 300 

Cranston, R. I. . . 

. 400 

Kenosha, Wis. 

.. . . 200 

Newport, R. I. ... 

. 500 

La Crosse, Wis. 

. .. . 235 

Warwick, R. I. ... 

. 500 

Madison, Wis. 

.. . . 500 

Woonsocket, R. I. 

. 900 

Oshkosh, Wis. 

. .. . 100 

Columbia, S. C. 

. 281 

Racine, Wis. 

. .. . 700 

Knoxville, Tenn. . 

. 350 

Sheboygan, Wis. 

.... 852' 

Austin, Tex. 

. 300 





Total. 

.. .112,521 


The general population of these one hundred and fifty-seven 
cities was, according to the 1910 census, 4,278,000. It is now 
doubtless over 4,910,000. The Jewish population percentage 
is consequently 2.3$. 

The following table shows the Jewish population of fifteen 
cities in the United States, whose combined general population 
is 17,210,000, and which contain over 2,500,000 Jews: 


TABLE E 

Showing Fifteen Cities Containing Over Seventy-Five Per Cent 
of the Jews of the United States 

Jewish 


City Population 

New York .1,500,000 

Chicago . 225,000 

Philadelphia. 200,000 

Cleveland . 100,000 


Jewish 

City Population 

Boston . 77,500 

Baltimore. 60,000 

St. Louis . 60,000 

Pittsburgh. 60,000 
















































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 55 


TABLE E (continued) 

, Jewish 

City Population City 

Newark . 55,000 Buffalo ... 

Detroit . 50,000 Rochester . 

San Francisco. 30,000 

Cincinnati . 25,000 Total . 

Milwaukee .. 20,000 


Jewish 

Population 

20,000 

20,000 


2,502,500 
or 14.5# 


On pages 342-344 will be found a list of one hundred and 
sixty-one cities in the United States, each containing one 
thousand or more Jews. The following cities have at least five 
hundred and less than one thousand Jews: 


TABLE F 

Showing Sixty-One Cities Whose Jewish Population is Five 
Hundred, or More, and Less Than One Thousand 


Jewish 

City Popul tion> 

Sacramento, Cal.900 

San Diego, Cal. 600 

Colorado Springs, Colo.... 660 

Norwalk, Conn.550 

Macon, Ga. 550 

Danville, Ill.625 

Elgin, Ill. 500 

Maywood, Ill. 700 

Oak Park, Ill. 750 

Rockford, Ill. 900 

Springfield, Ill. 700 

Hammond, Ind. 600 

Indiana Harbor, Ind.650 

Terre Haute, Ind. 500 

Cedar Rapids, la.700 

Davenport, la. 600 

- Leavenworth, Kan.600 

Cumberland, Md.600 

Attleboro, Mass.530 

Beverly, i^Iass. 550 

Fitchburg, Mass.528 

Lexington, Mass.540 

North Adams, Mass.500 

Peabody, Mass.750 

Plymouth, Mass. 510 


South Framingham, Mass. 500 


Jewish 


City Population 

Taunton, Mass. 750 

Benton Harbor, Mich. 580 

Kalamazoo, Mich.900 

Port Huron, Mich. 500 

Vicksburg, Miss.532 

Manchester, N. H.600 

Portsmouth, N. H. 550 

Red Bank, N. J. 500 

Glen Falls, N. Y. 500 

Gloversville, N. Y. 650 

Kingston, N. Y.800 

Patchogue, N. Y.500 

Peekskill, N. Y. 500 

Durham, N. C. 500 

Fargo, N. D. 600 

Tulsa, Okla. 500 

Bradford, Pa. 560 

Easton, Pa. 800 

Farrell, Pa. 550 

Hazleton, Pa. 950 

Homestead, Pa. 650 

Mount Carmel, Pa. 550 

New Castle, Pa. 610 

Sharon, Pa. 500 

Shenandoah, Pa. 550 

Uniontown, Pa. 600 
























































56 


AMERICAN JEfWISH YEAR BOOK 


TABLE F (continued) 


Jewish 

City Population 

York, Pa. 700 

Newport, R. 1. 500 

Pawtucket, R. 1. 500 

Warwick, R. 1. 500 

Woonsocket, R. 1. 900 


Jewish 

Town Population 

Burlington, Vt.850 

Tacoma, Wash.900 

Sheboygan, Wis.852 

Superior, Wis. 800 


It must not be imagined from this exhibit that no Jews are 
found in the smallest communities. As a matter of fact, of the 
thousands of minor towns, villages, or hamlets in the entire 
country, there are very few in which is not to be discovered 
a nucleus of Jews, sometimes, indeed, amounting to only one 
or two families, but still a potential Jewish community. The 
following list of villages, each containing less than one 
thousand inhabitants (those marked with an asterisk contain 
less than five hundred), indicates that even in the smallest of 
our American communities, there is probably to be found a 
small Jewish admixture: 


TABLE G 

Showing Jewish Population of Twenty-Nine Towns Each Having 
a General Population of Less Than One Thousand 


Jewish 

Town Population 

Panama, Ill. 5 

*Denham, Ind. 9 

Earl Park, Ind. 2 

Milan, Ind.10 

Alberton, Md. 14 

Kitzmiller, Md. 1 

*Boyne Falls, Mich. 7 

Shelby, Miss. 24 

* Sunflower, Miss. 14 

*Warrenville, N. J.. 5 

Rosenhayn, N. J.300 

Carmel, N. J. 450 

*Ruidoso, N. Mex. 4 

*Hunter, N. Y.200 

*Bloomingdale, N. Y. 14 


Jewish 

Town Population 

*Lehr, N. D. 14 

*Laura, 0. 4 

* Jacksonville, 0. 4 

*Pittsburg, Okla. 5 

Hopewell, Pa.125 

*Lane, S. C. 6 

*Ehrhardt, S. C. 17 

Chapel Hill, Tex. 13 

*Birdsnest, Va. 5 

*Cheritan, Va. 10 

*Weirton, W. Va. 69 

*Caso, W. Va. 10 

*Genesee, Wis. 11 

*Fenwood, Wis. 2 




































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 57 


While lack of space prevents the listing here of every town 
in the United States having a general population of more than 
1000, and less than 20,000, the following, which may be 
described as fairly typical, are given at this point, together 
with their Jewish populations, the figure printed after the 
name of each town indicating how many thousands of indi¬ 
viduals the town contained according to the 1910 census, 
except as to those places situated in the states of Kansas, 
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ehode 
Island, South Dakota, or Wyoming, whose general population 
is given as of the year 1915. The total number of persons 
residing in these 500 small cities and villages is a little under 
4,200,000, wdiile the total number of Jews living in them is a 
trifle less than 80,000. In this connection it must be recalled 
that the aggregate population of these municipalities has 
greatly increased since 1910, while the Jewish quotas are those 
of the present time. Making due allowances, therefore, it will 
be seen that the Jewish percentage averages between Vf, and 2/ 0 
of the general population in cities of this magnitude. 


TABLE H 

Showing Jewish Population of Five Hundred Towns Whose 
General Population is Between 1000 and 20,000 


Jewish 

City Population 

ALABAMA 

Anniston (13) . 220 

Atmore ( 1 ) . 8 

Bessemer (11) . 110 

Decatur (4) . 170 

Demopolis (2). 107 

Dothan (7) . 40 

Eufaula (4) . 110 

Florence (7) . 197 

Gadsden (11) . 107 

Huntsville ( 8 ) . 60 

Jasper (3) . 29 


Jewish 

City Population 

Selma (14) . 340 

Sheffield (5) . 50 

Thomas (2) . 15 

Tuscaloosa ( 8 ) . 55 

Uniontown (2) . 22 


ARIZONA 

Douglas ( 6 ). 100 

Morenci (5). 3 

Phoenix (11). 150 

Tucson (13) . 40- 






















58 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


TABLE H 

Jewish 


City Population 

ARKANSAS 

Cotton Plant (1) . 32 

Helena (9) . 250 

Hot Springs (14). 309 

Jonesboro (7) . 100 

Osceola (2) . 67 

Paragould (5) . 25 

Pine Bluff (15). 400 

Texarkana ( 6 ) . 200 

CALIFORNIA 

Bakersfield (13). 125 

El Centro (2) . 12 

Huntington Park (1) .... 88 

Long Beach (18) . 200 

Marysville (5) . 55 

Redlands (10) . 70 

San Bernardino (13). 250 

Santa Ana ( 8 ) . 87 

Santa Cruz (11). 64 

Santa Rosa ( 8 ). 26 

Sawtelle (2) . 15 

Tulare (3) . 2 

Tuolumne (1). 10 

COLORADO 

Boulder (10) . 100 

Cripple Creek ( 6 ) . 110 

Leadville ( 8 ) . 79 

Trinidad (10) . 250 

CONNECTICUT 

Ansonia (15) . 150 

Branford (3) . 60 

Colchester ( 1 ) . 480 

Derby (9) . 250 

East Hampton (1). 9 

Ellington ( 2 ) . 225 

Moosup (2) . 90 

South Norwalk (9).1,000 

Wallingford (9) . 200 

Willimantic (11) . 250 


(continued) 

Jewish 

City Population 

DELAWARE 

Middletown (1) .. 34 

FLORIDA 

Fernandina (3) . 17 

Miami (5) . 175 

Ocala (4) . 62 

GEORGIA 

Albany (8) . 265 

Athens (15) . 340 

Bainbridge (4). 103 

Brunswick (10) . 138 

Cornelia (1) . 2 

Dalton (5) . 18 

Hazlehurst (1) . 8 

Lumber City (1). 4 

Marietta (6) . 1 

Rome (12) . 250 

West Point (2) . 84 

IDAHO 

Boise (17) . 200 

ILLINOIS 

Abingdon (2) . 20 

Alton (18) ... 90 

Beardstown .(6) . 3 

Cairo (15) 375 

Centralia (10) . 50 

Champaign (12) . 150 

Clinton (5) . 30 

Fort Sheridan (2) . 20 

Kankakee (14) . 260 

Lincoln (11) . 73 

Maywood (8) . 700 

Metropolis (5) . 12 

Mount Vernon (8) . 72 

Oak Park (19) . 750 

Taylorville (5) . 49 

Waukegan (16) . 400 


































































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 59 


TABLE H 


Jewish 

City Population 

INDIANA 

Alexandria (5). 5 

Attica (3) . 33 

Bedford (9). 20 

Columbus (9) . 95 

Crawfordsvilie (9) . 28 

Elwood (11) . 57 

Frankfort (9) . 26 

Gary (17) .1,200 

Goshen (9) . 78 

Greensburg (5) . 34 

Howell (2) . 5 

Indiana Harbor (5). 650 

Kokomo (17) . 130 

Ligonier (2) . 100 

Madison (7) . 70 

Marion (19) . 400 

Michigan City (19) . 450 

Mount Vernon ( 6 ) .. 85 

Peru (11) . 100 

Rockville (2) . 20 

Union City (3) . 3 

Vincennes (15) . 50 

Wabash (9) . 150 

Washington ( 8 ) . 17 

Whiting (7) . 44 


(continued) 


Jewish 

City Population 

Junction City (6) . 15 

Manhattan (7) . 12 

Pittsburg (18) . 65 

Wellington (6) . 18 

KENTUCKY 

Henderson (11) . 275 

Hopkinsville (9) . 150 

Owensboro (16) . 230 

Shelbyville (3) . 39 

LOUISIANA 

Alexandria (11) . 450 

Baton Rouge (15) . 165 

Bogalusa (2) . 65 

Crowley (5) . 66 

Donaldsonville (4) . 100 

Lake Charles (11). 286 

Lecompte (1) . 83 

Monroe (10) . 350 

Morgan City (5) . 220 

New Iberia (7) .. 105 

Plaquemine (5) . 55 


MAINE 


IOWA 


Centerville ( 8 ) . 130 

Dows (1) . 10 

Fort Madison (10). 65 

Keokuk (15) . 143 

Mason City (17) . 260 

Muscatine (16). 429 

Osage (3) . 52 

Webster City ( 6 ) . 45 


Auburn (15) . 300 

Caribou (5) . 25 

Ft. Fairfield (2) . 4 

Gardiner (5) . 70 

Ploulton ( 6 ) . 53 

Old Town ( 6 ) . 194 

Presque Isle (3) . 24 

Rockland ( 8 ) . 150 

Rumford (5) . 50 


» KANSAS 


Atchison (15) . 84 

Coffeyville (15) . 43 

Galena ( 6 ) . 73 

Hutchinson (19) . 200 


MARYLAND 


Annapolis (9) . 240 

Eastport (2) . 10 

Frederick (10) . 144 

Hagerstown (17) . 250 







































































60 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


TABLE H (continued) 


Jewish 

City Populationt 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Attleboro (18) . 530 

Abington (6) . 60 

Clinton (13) . 185 

Leominster (18) . 210 

Lexington (6) . 540 

Marlborough (15) . 125 

Medway (3) . 250 

Melrose (17) . 200 

Middleborough (8) . 40 

Millis (1). 110 

Montague (8) . 51 

Peabody (19) . 750 

Plymouth (13) . 510 

South Framingham (9).. 500 

Stoneham (7) . 85 

Watertown (17) . 60 

Westborough (6) . 12 

Winthrop (13) .1,500 

MICHIGAN 

Alpena (13). 50 

Ann Arbor (15) . 300 

Benton Harbor. (9) . 580 

Cadillac (8) . 72 

Crystal Falls (4) . 165 

Escanaba (13) . 83 

Hancock (9) . 83 

Holland (10). 12 

Houghton (5) . 165 

Iron River (2) . 100 

Laurium (9) . 75 

Manistee (12) . 33 

Marquette (12) . 95 

Monroe (7) . 30 

Negaunee (8) . 90 

Petoskey (5) . 89 

Port Huron (19) . 500 

Sault Sainte Marie (13).. 206 

MINNESOTA 

Austin (7) . 40 

Chisholm (8) . 83 


Jewish 


City Population 

Eveleth (7) . 110 

Hibbing (9) . 165 

Little Falls ( 6 ). 30 

Mankato (10) . 115 

Stillwater (10) . 25 

Virginia (10) . 250 

MISSISSIPPI 

Canton (4) . 75 

Clarksdale (4) . 220 

Columbus (9) . 52 

Greenville (10) . 350 

Hattiesburg (12) . 125 

Laurel ( 8 ) . 80 

Lexington (2) . 83 

Natchez (12) .. 261 

Okolona (3) . 24 

Port Gibson (2) . 53 

Rolling Fork (1). 22 

Starkville (3) . 38 

Summit (1) . 27 

West Point (5) . 14 

Yazoo City (7) . 78 

MISSOURI 

Brookfield ( 6 ) . 2 

Carthage (9). 69 

Columbia (10) . 175 

Hannibal (18) . 92 

Independence (10) ...... 85 

Jefferson City (12) . 155 

Lexington (5). 8 

Louisiana (4) . 88 

MONTANA 

Anaconda (10) . 60 

Billings (10) . 260 

Helena (13) . 347 

Livingston (5) . 15 

Missoula (13) . 75 








































































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 


TABLE H (continued) 


Jewish 

City Population 

NEBRASKA 

Fremont (9) . 100 

Nebraska City (5) . 49 

NEVADA 

Goldfield (5) . 15 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

Derry (3). 42 

Portsmouth (11) . 550 

NEW JERSEY 

Allendale (1) . 10 

Alpha (2). 15 

Asbury Park (11) .1,250 

Bernardsville (1) . 30 

Bloomfield (17) .1,000 

Boonton (5) . 50 

Carteret (4) . 150 

Dover (9) . 300 

Gloucester City (11) .... 62 

Hackensack (14) . 200 

Harrison (15).1,000 

Keyport (4) . 166 

Lakewood (4) . 375 

Long Branch (15).1,300 

Maywood (1) . 49 

Millville (13) . 170 

Morristown (13) . 200 

Oxford (3) . 18 

Red Bank (9) . 500 

Somerville (6) . 250 

South River (7) . 250 

Westfield (8) . 80 

Woodbine (2) .1,900 

NEW MEXICO 

Albuquerque (11) . 220 

Roswell (6). 20 

San Marcial (1) . 10 

Santa Rita (2) . 2 

Tome (1) . 10 


Jewish 

City Papulation 

NEW YORK 

Bainbridge (1). 12 

Batavia (13) . 141 

Cold Spring (3) . 17 

Dunkirk (18) . 164 

Ellenville (3) . 330 

Fonda (1) . 11 

Freeport (7) . 300 

Friendship (1) . 12 

Fulton (11) . 60 

Glen Cove (5) . 281 

Glens Falls (16). 500 

Haverstraw (5) . 220 

Hempstead (6) . 88 

Hoosick Falls (5) . 87 

Hudson (12) . 450 

Huntington (5) . 300 

Ithaca (17) . 221 

Johnstown (11) . 45 

Lindenhurst (2) . 200 

Little Falls (13). 150 

Malone (7). 20 

Mechanicsville (8) . 52 

Medina (6) . 60 

Newark (6) . 18 

New York Mills (3). 326 

Ogdensburg (14) . 55 

Olean (18) . 150 

Oneida (9). 60 

Oneonta (10) . 35 

Oriskany Falls (1) . 10 

Patchogue (5). 500 

Peekskill (16) . 500 

Phelps (1) . 13 

Piermont (1) . 5 

Plattsburg (10) . 205 

Port Chester (15),.1,000 

Port Jervis (9) . 150 

Potsdam (4) . 40 

Riverhead (3) . 77 

Rouses Pt. (2). 6 

Tarrytown (6) . 400 

Tonawanda (8) . 100 












































































62 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


TABLE H (continued) 


Jewish 


City Population 

Tupper Lake (4) . 150 

Woodhull (1) . 13 

NORTH CAROLINA 

Asheville (19) . 250 

Durham (18) . 500 

Gastonia (6) . 39 

Goldsboro (6) . 165 

Greensboro (16) . 187 

Raleigh (19) . 120 

Ramseur (1) . 1 

Rocky Mount (8) . 43 

Statesville (5) . 55 

Tarboro (4) . 55 

NORTH DAKOTA 

Bismarck (6) . 22 

Dickinson (4). 51 

OHIO 

Alliance (15) . 100 

Amsterdam (1) . 11 

Bellaire (13) . 440 

Bucyrus (8) . 43 

Cambridge (11) . 62 

Chillicothe (15) . 51 

Fremont (10) . 55 

Glendale (2) . 10 

Ironton (13) . 90 

Lancaster (13) . 107 

Marietta (13) . 80 

Marion (18) . 100 

Middletown (13) . 225 

Murray (1) . 15 

Pi qua (13) ... 60 

St. Marys (6) .. 33 

Sekitan (2) . 18 

Shadyside (1) . 20 

Troy (6) . 19 

Van Wert (17) . 17 

Wellsville (8) . 23 


Jewish 


City 

Population 

OKLAHOMA 


Ardmore (9) . 

... 150 

Chickasha (10) . 

... 125 

Enid (14) . 

50 

Guthrie (12) . 

35 

Hartsborne (3) . 

18 

Lawton (8) . 

46 

McAlester (13) . 

37 

Tulsa (18) . 

. .. 500 

PENNSYLVANIA 


Aliquippa (2) . 

... 300 

Berwick (5) . 

... 157 

Bethlehem (13) . 

... 130 

Braddock (19) . 

... 1,600 

Bradford (15) . 

... 560 

California (2) . 

... 117 

Carbondale (17) . 

,. . . 1,000 

Carnegie (10) . 

... 320 

Catasauqua (5) . 

50 

Chambersburg (12) .. 

90 

Charleroi (10) . 

75 

Coatesville (11) . 

,.. . 300 

Connellsville (13) .... 

... 383 

Conshohocken (7) .... 

63 

Corry (6) . 

34 

Coudersport (3). 

8 

Danville (8) . 

, .. . 104 

Dickson City (9) . 

. .. . 174 

Du Bois (13) . 

, . . . 186 

Dunmore (18) . 

... 109 

Duquesne (16) . 

.... 350 

Edgewood (3) . 

11 

Exeter Bor. (3) .. 

,... 198 

Farrell (10) . 

,... 550 

Freedom (3) ......... 

11 

Glassport (6) . 

.... 120 

Homestead (19) __ 

.... 650 

Kittanning (4) . 

.... 145 

Lebanon (19) . 

.... 100 

Lock Haven (8) . 

_ 200 

Lyndora (2) . 

53 











































































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 33 


TABLE H 

Jewish 


City Population 

McKees Rocks (15) . 220 

Mahanoy City (16) . 244 

Meadville (13) . 75 

Middletown (5) . 85 

Midland (1) . 94 

Mount Carmel (18) . 550 

Nanticoke (19) . 150 

New Kensington (8). 375 

Northampton (9) . 100 

Northumberland (4) .... 88 

Oil City (16) . 380 

Old Forge (11) . 263 

Olyphant (9) . 280 

Phoenixville (11) . 220 

Pittston (16) . 320 

Pottstown (16) . 328 

Punxsutawney (9) . 275 

Sharon (15) . 500 

Southwest (2) . 5 

Steelton (14) . 250 

Sunbury (14) . 150 

Swissvale (7) . 375 

Titusville (9) . 205 

Trafford (2) . 14 

Uniontown (13) . 600 

Warren (11) . 102' 

Washington (19) . 400 

Wilkinsburg (19) . 125 

Windber (8) . 95 

RHODE ISLAND 

Bristol (10) ..c. 300 

Westerly (10) . 212 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

Aiken (4) . 76 

Beaufort (2) ... 105 

Blackville (1). 39 

Camden (4) . 75 

Darlington (4) . 83 

Florence (7) . 49 

Georgetown (6) . 60 


(continued) 

Jewish 


City 

Population 

Greer (2) . 

17 

Spartanburg (18) .... 

... 120 

Sumter (8) . 

... 300 

Union (6) . 

40 

SOUTH DAKOTA 

Aberdeen (12) . 

... 150 

TENNESSEE 

Binghamton (2) . 

40 

Bristol (7) . 

... 125 

Clarksville (9) . 

... 90 

Columbia (6) . 

55 

Dyersburg (4) .. 

46 

Goodlettsville (1) . ... 

8 

Jackson (16) . 

... 160 

Johnson City (9). 

... 45 


TEXAS 


Abilene (9) . 5 

Arlington (2) .... . 28 

Brenham (5) . 150 

Brownsville (11) . 65 

Brown wood (7) . 9 

Bryan (4) . 59 

Columbus (2) . 22 

Corpus Christi (8) ...... 110 

Corsicana (10) . 200 

Denison (14) . 36 

Denton (50 . 17 

Ennis (6) . 38 

Gainesville (8) . 40 

Greenville (9) . 32 

Hallettsville (1) . 27 

Hempstead (3). 50 

Hillsboro (6) . 34 

Jefferson (3) . 44 

Laredo (15) . 93 

Marshall (11) . 135 

Grange (6) . 69 

Palestine (10) . 95 


3 








































































64 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 



TABLE H 

(continued) 



Jewish 


Jewish 

City 

Population 

City Population 

Paris (11) . 

. 110 

WASHINGTON 


Port Arthur (8) .... 

. 110 

Aberdeen (14) . 

. . 40 

San Angelo (10) ... 

. 22 

Centralia (7) . 

.. 35 

Sherman (12) . 

. 41 

Ellensburg (4) .. 

21 

Taylor (5) . 

. 57 

Walla Walla (19) . 

.. 100 

Temple (11) . 

. 55 



Texarkana (10) .... 

. 150 

WEST VIRGINIA 


Tyler (10) . 

. 350 

Bluefield (11) . 

.. 152 

Victoria (4) . 

.. 120 

Urnmwell (1) . 

5 

Waxahachie (6) ... 

.. 29 

Clarksburg (9) . 

.. 245 



Elkins (5) . 

12 

UTAH 


Fairmont (10) . 

95 

Logan (8) . 

. 75 

Gary (1) .. 

6 


Kimball (2) . 

45 

VERMONT 


Morgantown (9) . 

.. 120 

Bennington (6) ... 

. 103 

Parkersburg (18) . 

. . 440 

Montpelier (8) . 

. 100 

WISCONSIN 


Newport (3) . 

West Rutland (2) .. 

. 22 

Appleton (17) . 

Ashland (12) . 

.. 140 

22 



Beaverdam (7) . 

55 

VIRGINIA 


Beloit (15) . 

. . 167 

Alexandria (15) ... 

. 72 

Fond du Lac (19). 

.. 125 

Berkley (6) .. 

. 88 

Hurley (3) ... 

.. 300 

Charlottesville (7) 

. 50 

Janesville (14). 

83 

Cliftonforge (6) ... 

. 26 

Marinette (15) . 

.. 275 

Danville (19) . 

. 150 

Neenah (6) . 

.. 33 

Fredericksburg (6) 

. 66 

Stevens Point (9) . 

.. 100 

Hampton (6) . 

. 80 

Wausau (17) . 

. . 225 

Harrisonburg (5) . 

. 102 


Pocahontas (2) ... 

81 

WYOMING 


Staunton (11) __ 

. 85 

Rock Springs (6) . 

28 

The following table shows 

the Jewish population 

of the 

country, by states : 





TABLE I 


Showing the Jewish Population of the United States, by States 


Jewish 


Je'wish 

State 

Population 

State Population 

Alabama. 

... 11,086 

California . 

63,652 

Arizona . 

1,013 

Colorado ... 

14,565 

Arkansas . 

5,012 

Connecticut . 

66,862 


i 
























































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 65 


State 

TABLE I 

Jewish 

(continued) 

Jewish 

Population 

State 

Population 

Delaware . 


North Dakota. 

1,492 

District of Columbia 

. . 10,000 

Ohio . 

. .. 166,361 

Florida. 

6,451 

Oklahoma . 

5,186 

Georgia . 

.. 22,414 

Oregon . 

9,767 

Idaho . 

1,078 

Pennsylvania . 

.. 322,406 

Illinois . 

. . 246,637 

Rhode Island . 

, .. 20,502 

Indiana .. 

.. 25,833 

South Carolina. 

4,816 

Iowa . 

.. 15,555 

South Dakota. 

1,262 

Kansas . 

9,450 

Tennessee . 

.. 14,034 

Kentucky. 

.. 13,362 

Texas .. 

... 30,839 

Louisiana . 

. . 12,723 

Utah .*. 

3,737 

Maine . 

7,387 

Vermont. 

2,221 

Maryland . 

.. 62,642 

Virginia . 

.. 15,403 

Massachusetts . 

. . 189,671 

Washington. 

9,117 

Michigan . 

.. 63,254 

West Virginia. 

5,129 

Minnesota. 

. . 31,462 

Wisconsin .. 

.. . 28,581 

Mississippi . 

3,881 

Wyoming . 

498 

Missouri. 


Porto Rico. 

200 

Montana .. 

2,518 

Alaska. 

500 

Nebraska. 

. . 13,547 

Canal Zone. 

200 

Nevada . 

503 

Philippine Islands .. 

500 

New Hampshire .... 

3,257 

Virgin Islands . 

70 

New Jersey. 

.. 149,476 

Guam . 

1 

New Mexico. 

New York . 

858 

. .1,603,923 

Hawaii . 

150 

North Carolina. 

4,915 

Total . 

.. .3,390,572 


From the above table it would appear that the Jewish popu¬ 
lation of the United States approaches a total of nearly 
3,400,000. But it is probably not quite so great. In a mass 
of computations, such as those here set forth, based from the 
beginning largely on estimates, however carefully such esti¬ 
mates may have been pared down, it is entirely possible that 
an aggregation of errors amounting to two or three per cent 
may have; in one way or another, crept in, no matter how 
vigilantly the labors of the collators may have been supervised. 
It is therefore considered advisable by the writer, in order that 
the figures here exhibited may not become liable to any charge 


















































66 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


of having been padded or inflated, to assume some such per¬ 
centage of inaccuracy as that mentioned above, and there has 
consequently been allowed 2$ for such potential errors, making 
the final estimate of the Jews of the United States 3,320,000, 
as of the beginning of the year 1918. 

In the following table there is presented, in each case, the 
Jewish population of each state in the United States, as well 
as the Jewish population of each of the state’s larger cities or 
towns, together with the combined Jewish population of all of 
the state’s small towns. By a larger city is here meant any 
municipality having a general population of more than 20,000, 
and by a small town is meant any town with a general popula¬ 
tion of less than 20,000 and more than 1000, the general 
population figures being in all instances taken from the 1910 
census, with the exception of the eight states of Iowa, Kansas, 
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, South 
Dakota, and Wyoming, where the 1915 census returns have 
been relied upon. 

TABLE J 


Showing the Jewish Population of Each State, by Cities 


Jewish 

City Population 

ALABAMA 

Birmingham . 3,500 

Mobile . 2,200 

Montgomery . 1,650 

117 small towns. 3,736 


Total . 11,086 

ARIZONA 

33 small towns. 1,013 

ARKANSAS 

Fort Smith . 300 

Little Rock . 1,500 


Jewish 


City 

Popula ion 

Texarkana. .... 

200 

91 small towns. 

3,012 

Total ... 

5,012 

CALIFORNIA 

Alameda.. 

200 

Berkeley .. 

300 

Fresno. 

400 

Los Angeles. 

. 18,000 

Oakland . 

5.000 

Sacramento . 

900 

Pasadena ... ... 

350 

San Diego . 

600 

San Francisco. 

. 30,000 
























THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 67 * 


TABLE J 


Jewish 

City Population 

San Jose. 200 

Stockton . 1,000 

218 small towns. 6,702 


Total. 63,652 

COLORADO 

Colorado Springs. 660 

Denver . 11,000 

Pueblo . 1,000 

54 small towns. 1,905 


Total . 14,565 

CONNECTICUT 

Bridgeport. 12,000 

Danbury. 300 

Hartford .. . 16,000 

Meriden . 1,000 

New Britain . 2,500 

New Haven. 18,000 

New London. 1,000 

Norwalk . 550 

Norwich . 1,500 

Stamford . 1,500 

Waterbury. 6,000 

114 small towns. 6,512 


Total . 66,862 

DELAWARE 

AVilmington. 3,500 

15 small towns. 306 


Total . 3,806 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

Washington. 10,000 

FLORIDA 

Jacksonville . 2,000 

Key West. 200 

Pensacola. 1,000 


(continued) 

Jewish 

City Population 

Tampa. 1,000 

62 small towns. 2,251 


total . 6,451 

GEORGIA 

Atlanta. 10,000 

Augusta . 2,500 

Columbus. 300 

Macon . 550 

Savannah . 5,000 

117 small towns. 4,064 


Total . 22,414 

IDAHO 

Boise . 200 

35 small towns. 878 


Total . 1,078 

ILLINOIS 

Alton. 90 

Aurora . 300 

Belleville . 150 

Bloomington . 275 

Chicago . 225,000 

Danville . 625 

Decatur. 200 

East St. Louis. 1,000 

Elgin . 500 

Evanston . 250 

Galesburg . 220 

Joliet . 1,100 

Moline . 60 

Oak Park. 750 

Peoria . 1,750 

Quincy . 400 

Rockford . 900 

Rock Island. 412 

Springfield . 700 

361 small towns. 11,955 


Total . 246,637 








































































68 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 



TABLE J 

(continued) 



Jewish 


Jewish 

City 

Population 

City 

Population 

INDIANA 


KENTUCKY 


Anderson . 

150 

Covington. 

350 

Evansville . 

1,500 

Lexingtonji. 

385 

Fort Wayne. 

1,650 

Louisville . 

9,000 

Hammond. 

600 

Paducah . 

250 

Indianapolis . 

. .. 10,000 

97 small towns. 

3,377 

Lafayette . 

300 


— 

Muncie . 

200 

Total. 

. 13,362 

New Albany . 

125 



Richmond . 

155 

LOUISIANA 


South Bend. 

2,000 

New Orleans . 

8,000 

Terre Haute . 

500 

Shreveport . 

1,500 

191 small towns..., 

8,653 

76 small towns. 

3,223 

Total . 

... 25,833 

Total . 

. 12,723 



MAINE 


IOWA. 




Burlington . 

225 

Bangor . 

Lewiston . 

1,000 

275 

Cedar Rapids . 

700 

Portland . 

2,500 

Council Bluffs. 

1,000 

113 small towns. 

3,612 

Clinton . 

65 



Davenport . 


Total . 

7,387 

Des Moines .. 

3,200 



Dubuque.. 


MARYLAND 


Ottumwa.. 


Baltimore . 

. 60,000 

Sioux City. 

2,500 

Cumberland . 

600 

Waterloo. 


67 small towns. 

2,042 

205 small towns. ... 






Total. 

. 62,642 

Total. 






MASSACHUSETTS 

KANSAS 


Beverly. 

550 



Boston . 

. 77,500 

Kansas City .. 

3,500 

Brockton . 

1,500 

Leavenworth. 

600 

Brookline. 


Topeka .. 

1,000 

Cambridge . 

8,000 

Wichita . 

300 

Chelsea . 

. 13,000 

131 small towns... 

4,050 

Chicopee . 

300 



Everett . 

500 

Total . 

9,450 

Fall River . 

7,500 




































































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 69 


TABLE J 


Jewish 

City Population 

Gloucester . 243 

Haverhill .. 3,500 

Holyoke . 1,000 

Lawrence. 2,000 

Lowell . 6,000 

Lynn . 7,500 

Malden . 9,000 

Medford . 250 

New Bedford. 3,500 

Newton. 400 

North Adams . 500 

Northampton. 330 

Pittsfield . 1,500 

Quincy. 1,250 

Revere. 6,000 

Salem . 1,500 

Somerville . 2,000 

Springfield . 6,000 

Taunton . 750 

Waltham . 300 

Worcester. 10,000 

268 small towns. 17,098 


Total. 189,671 

MICHIGAN 

Battle Creek. 244 

Bay City. 1,000 

Calumet . 110 

Detroit . 50,000 

Flint . 385 

Grand Rapids. 1,000 

Jackson. 300 

Kalamazoo . 900 

Lansing. 450 

Muskegon'. 300 

Saginaw . 1,000 

199 small towns. 7,565 


Total . 63,254 


(continued) 

Jewish 

City Population 

MINNESOTA 

Duluth . 2,300 

Minneapolis . 15,000 

St. Paul. 10,000 

145 small towns. 4,162 


Total. 31,462 

MISSISSIPPI 

Jackson. 126 

Meridian. 400 

Vicksburg. 532 

74 small towns. 2,823 


Total . 3,881 

✓ 

MISSOURI 

Joplin . 250 

Kansas City. 12,000 

St. Joseph . 3,300 

St. Louis . 60,000 

Springfield. 165 

216 small towns. 5,092 


Total. 80,807 

MONTANA 

Butte. 1,000 

34 small towns. 1,518 

Total . 2,518 

NEBRASKA 

Lincoln . 1,200 

Omaha . 10,000 

South Omaha . 262 

88 small towns. 2,085 


Total. 13,547 

NEVADA 

22 small towns. 503 






































































70 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


TABLE J (continued) 


Jewish 

City Population 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

Concord. 158 

Manchester. 600 

Nashua . 350 

58 small towns. 2,149 


Total . 3,257 

NEW JERSEY 

Atlantic City. 4,000 

Bayonne . 10,000 

Camden . 2,000 

East Orange . 300 

Elizabeth . 5,000 

Hoboken. 5,000 

Irvington . 200 

Jersey City. 12,500 

Kearny . 400 

Montclair. 75 

Newark . 55,000 

New Brunswick. 3,000 

Orange . 210 

Passaic . 6,000 

Paterson . 15,000 

Perth Amboy . 5,000 

Plainfield . 1,500 

Trenton . 7,000 

Union . 400 

West Hoboken . 350 

West New York. 1,500 

190 small towns. 15,041 


Total . 149,476 

NEW MEXICO 

35 small towns. 858 

NEW YORK 

Albany . *7,000 

Amsterdam . 300 

Auburn . 250 

Binghamton . 1,5(10 


Jewish 

City Population 

Buffalo . 20,000 

Cohoes . 200 

Elmira . 1,200 

Gloversville . 650 

Jamestown . 125 

Kingston. 800 

Mt. Vernon . 3,000 

Newburgh . 400 

New Rochelle. 3,000 

New York.1,500,000 

Niagara Falls. 400 

Oswego . 300 

Poughkeepsie . 1,600 

Rochester . 20,000 

Rome . 250 

Schenectady ......... 3,500 

Syracuse. 12,000 

Troy. 3,000 

Utica . 1,600 

Watertown . 230 

Yonkers. 5,000 

356 small towns. 17,618 


Total .1,608,923 

NORTH CAROLINA 

Charlotte . 350 

Wilmington . 400 

Winston Salem. 116 

110 small towns. 4,049 


Total. 4,915 

NORTH DAKOTA 

Fargo . 600 

34 small towns. 892 


Total. 1,492 

OHIO 

Akron . 2,000 

Ashtabula. 209 






































































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 


TABLE J 


Jewish 

City Population 

Canton .„. 1,000 

Cincinnati . 25,000 

Cleveland . 100,000. 

Columbus . 9,000 

Dayton . 4,000 

East Liverpool. 30D 

Hamilton . 260 

Lima . 300 

Lorain . 350 

Mansfield . 50 

Marion . 100 

Newark . 100 

Norwood . 161 

Portsmouth . 128 

Sandusky. 143 

Springfield. 400 

Steubenville . 400 

Toledo . 7,500 

Youngstown. 5,000 

Zanesville . 250 

287 small towns. 9,710 


Total. 166,361 

OKLAHOMA 

Muskogee . 225 

Oklahoma City. 1,000 

Tulsa . 500 

131 small towns. 3,461 


Total . 5,186 

OREGON 

Portland. 8,000 

50 small towns. 1,767 


Total. 9,767 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Allentown . 1,200 

Altoona. 1,000 

Braddock . 1,600 


(continued) 

Jewish 

City Population 

Butler . 150 

Chester . 1,000 

Easton. 800 

Erie . 1,500 

Harrisburg . 4,000 

Hazleton . 950 

Homestead . 650 

Johnstown. 400 

Lancaster . 1,400 

Lebanon . 100 

McKeesport . 3,000 

Nanticoke. 150 

New Castle. 610 

Norristown . 220 

Philadelphia . 200,000 

Pittsburgh. 60,000 

Pottsville . 400 

Heading . 1,750 

Scranton. 7,500, 

Shamokin. 235 

Shenandoah . 550 

South Bethlehem. 1,300 

Washington . 400 

Wilkes-Barre. 3,000 

Wilkinsburg . 125 

Williamsport . 350 

York . 700 

593 small towns. 27,366 


Total. 322,406 

RHODE ISLAND 

Central Falls. 250 

Cranston . 400 

Newport . 500 

Pawtucket . 500 

Providence. 15,000 

Woonsocket. 900 

32 small towns. 2,952 


Total . 20,502 












































































72 


AMERICAN JEIWISH YEAR BOOK 


TABLE J 

Jewish 


City Population 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

Charleston . 1,900 

Columbia . 281 

77 small towns. 2,635 


Total . 4,816 

SOUTH DAKOTA 

Sioux City. 200 

38 small towns... 1,062 


Total . 1,262 

TENNESSEE 

Chattanooga . 1,400 

Knoxville. 350 

Memphis. 7,000 

Nashville . 3,000 

90 small towns. 2,284 


Total. 14,034 

TEXAS 

Austin . ..... 300 

Beaumont . 400 

Dallas . 8,000 

El Paso. 1,800 

Fort worth. 2,250 

Galveston . 1,100 

Houston . 5,000 

San Antonio. 3,000 

Waco . 1,500 

286 small towns. 7,489 


Total . 30,839 

UTAH 

Ogden . 125 

Salt Lake City. 2,500 

34 small towns. 1,112 


Total .. 3,737 


(continued) 

Jewish 

City Population 

VERMONT 

Burlington . 850 

51 small towns. 1,371 


, Total . 2,221 

VIRGINIA 

Lynchburg ..'. 300 

Newport News . 2,000 

Norfolk . 5,000 

‘Petersburg . 400 

Portsmouth . 1,000 

Richmond. 4,000 

Roanoke . 300 

87 small towns. 2,403 


Total . 15,403 

WASHINGTON 

Bellingham . 250 

Everett. 150 

Seattle. 5,000 

Spokane . 1,100 

Tacoma. 900 

67 small towns. 1,717 


Total. 9,117 

WEST VIRGINIA 

Charleston . 1,000 

Huntington . 310 

Wheeling . 1,000 

92 small towns.. 2,819 


Total. 5,129 

WISCONSIN 

Green Bay. 300 

Kenosha . 200 

































































THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 73 


TABLE J (continued) 


City- 

Jewish 

Population 

City. 

Jewish 

Population 

La Crosse. 

. 235 

Superior . 

800 

Madison . 

. 250 

151 small towns. 

5,444 

Milwaukee ...... 

Oshkosh . 

. 20,000 

. 100 

Total. 

, . 28,581 

Racine.. 

. 400 

WYOMING 


Sheboygan.. 

. 852 

18 small towns... 

498 

Grand total. 





The total Jewish population of the United States amounted, 
therefore, in 1917 to over 3,300,000. If to these he added the 
Jews of Canada and Latin America, it will be found that there 
are now in the Western Continent over three and a half million 
Jews. Twelve states of the Union, namely, California, Con¬ 
necticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michi¬ 
gan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsyl¬ 
vania, as shown by Table K, contain nine-tenths of all the 
Jews in the country. 


TABLE K 

Showing Twelve States Which Contain Ninety Per Cent of the 
Jews in the United States 


Jewish 

State Population 

California . 63,652 

Connecticut. 66,862 

Illinois..,. 246,637 

Indiana . 25,833 

Maryland . 63,642 

Massachusetts . 189,671 

Michigan . 63,254 


Jewish 

State Population 

Missouri . 80,807 

New Jersey . 149,476 

New York .1,603,923 

Ohio . 166,361 

Pennsylvania . 322,406 


Total..3,041,524 


The single state of Yew York, with a Jewish population of 
over 1,600,000, holds, it will be seen, nearly half of all the Jews 
in the United States. Wyoming and Nevada have less Jews 




























74 


AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK 


than any other state, namely, five hundred each, about the 
same number as there are in the Philippines. Alaska also has 
approximately five hundred. There are two hundred in the 
Canal Zone, and as many in Porto Pico, seventy in the Virgin 
Islands, and one in Guam. 

In making all the computations for the purposes of this 
census, no attention has been paid to places with a general 
population of less than one thousand. Thus if here or there 
some slight exaggerations have crept into our census, they will 
be, in a measure, neutralized through the omission of the Jewish 
quotas in the numerous townlets that have been disregarded. 
It may be of interest to note here that New York is not per¬ 
centage-wise the most Jewish city. Chelsea, Mass., has a 
general population of forty-six thousand, and contains thirteen 
thousand Jews, or a Jewish population of twenty-eight per 
cent. Rosenhayn, N. J. has a general population of six 
hundred, and contains three hundred Jews, or a Jewish popula¬ 
tion of fifty per cent, while Carmel, N. J. has a general 
population of seven hundred and fifty, and contains four 
hundred and fifty Jews, or a Jewish population of sixty per 
cent. Woodbine, N. J., is practically entirely Jewish in 
population. 







* * ** ^ 

* a° \ *y??T'' a ^ 

0* 0 0 * ® * ^q . <• ' # 

»b V *’ «^’.. .'»*. V.-^ <‘‘ 

„*.°^ *f»; . 

O’ <fc J**’ °Q 

► $* ® » o 4 ^j *£» 

>+ ^ .;«s'. V >° 0 *MV> ^ 

\/ :sgt, 

• v : -jSP>* ^ v \ ■•if* «/V 

* jp 'It *4 ^ *f*> ,0^ ^b 

V e.° .^*% °o .,** ,.iUL*. ** -o* .••'* 



© * * 


^ ^ w w ^ S'MOZ&C- "*? 


*W 



*bi>* 



t/°*“ &*+*. ”j- 

S-* %, **"’*’'’* 0 ° . ^'*•••• -o » 

»’ * e* c*. jy »•**% v“ v * * • o„ ^q, <\ 

* , (JL • Tj. a*v .£* yv * , A®v^S^ # «£. A.V 

*jR\$€;fo a ^ ^ * £*121 * %$* at * <(0vw A° ^ <£ 

* 4* Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 



© « « 


<* 4 * 

> * V*n> 




Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 



^1 Treatment Date: April 2010 


* <l> 

irGh * , „ A O A T 




PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 


*• « „ 0 7 








V v •• 


ft 

« V 

<y ^ * * °. 

A o v V */TTT fc A 

0 ° •rfJS.w*.. °o ^ A 



*bV* 




' * ’ A 0 <$> 

a*> ••*!% *> 







% U <& *'■* 

: *■ 

•* A V<- 

,vV @ * • **U 

C> *^5!^ * e 

> 0 ' ’’o 

•* # °«* iP 

... •*./ °o ^E-'\<P 

V *! # «* c\ aO *♦’ 
- "» - » <$» o» ♦, 

* <? n C& * 

* ^ <? • 

. . . <£ *V ^ % 

. v f - <i> n v ft o • • , * Q A> ,«.»«* Y, 

't, C U *^$W* v> S* S-sr9*^* *&, 

* ^o 4 ? i H3l&’ ^otP : 

r <f- •‘tQIMf^,* .‘^' ^ ^ ’^. V 

•-. ^ <?''%$'«*% & j£k ^ v ,*;' 

' ,jA /k \ '/ 

& % \^SK* ** v \ ; -y5P?** Y%* ; - 

.* O'- ^b. * 5 yv»* vv <**•.>• A %. *■ 

<>»«., *^o A' „ * * * * c? * °JL* # © 

* ^ A.vtf**.* %,.^ G ^ * *<S5Ks..«0^ o 





, * 




^-o 4 



°*'?r >' *° v'*^' A °+'™-\ f° , 



«* A * 

® ^ V 

; a^> o 

* ^ v <* ° 


v*' • 

AvP. 

4 , *C> 

4 * 



«' A "o*** <G 'O. "^«.*« 


A % ,t/. # o^ o 

d* *Vv 7 fe> ,r V ^ 

/ ^o 4 : ‘ 

* 4 0 * * 


A ^ V a * « 

*»* % A 4 ^ 

> A . *■ ’ *« ^ 

* <y 'M^hc % 

^O V - es^^A, >* * 


"V c %> **■"’*’*❖° ,> ^ **• *• °* N # 

• . % V v ,..., % j>* ,VV., *> V 4 .' 

^ ^ /AV ^ V ^ ^ *‘^'* '%/ .* A 


<• 


A •* 

* ^C> * 

.4 .0* V*-- 

.6^^- - ♦• 

v 



A \P_ ^ 

♦ 4> 

' /•> ^ ' 



*> 1 • * ^ f o n • *L*V 
v o'«^ 0 i - ^ 




• A q. 

® A * 

o- v o. *^YT^** aP’ 








































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































